HARDING CALLS FOR A RETURN TO NORMALCY
Boston, Massachusetts (JFK+50) On May 14, 1920, Senator Warren G. Harding*, Republican candidate for President of the United States, spoke to the Home Market Club at Mechanics' Hall** here in Boston. The Senator called for a "return to normalcy***" following the unsettling years of world war. He said...
"Poise has been disturbed and nerves have been racked, and fever has rendered men irrational...but the human procession still marches in the right direction. America's present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy. My best judgment of America's needs is to steady down, to get squarely on our feet, to make sure of the right path."
The Senator concluded his address with these words which might well be appropriate today one hundred years later...
"We want to go on, secure and unafraid, holding fast to the American inheritance and confident of the supreme American fulfillment."
*Warren Gamaliel Harding (1865-1923) was born in Blooming Grove, Ohio & served as a member of the Ohio senate 1900-1904, Lt. Gov of Ohio 1904-1906, U.S. Senate 1915-1921 & 29th POTUS 1921-1923. WGH received the highest % of the popular vote than any presidential candidate before him.
**Mechanics' Hall (1881-1959) located at Huntington Ave & W. Newton St. in Boston, MA was a civic auditorium which hosted conventions.
***Normalcy is a real word, interchangeable with normality, it means the condition of being normal, usual, typical or expected.
SOURCES
"Return to Normalcy, Warren G. Harding, May 14, 1920," www.teachingamericanhistory.org/
"Warren G. Harding and the 'Return to Normalcy (1920)," www.americanyawp.com/
Boston, Massachusetts (JFK+50) On May 14, 1920, Senator Warren G. Harding*, Republican candidate for President of the United States, spoke to the Home Market Club at Mechanics' Hall** here in Boston. The Senator called for a "return to normalcy***" following the unsettling years of world war. He said...
"Poise has been disturbed and nerves have been racked, and fever has rendered men irrational...but the human procession still marches in the right direction. America's present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy. My best judgment of America's needs is to steady down, to get squarely on our feet, to make sure of the right path."
The Senator concluded his address with these words which might well be appropriate today one hundred years later...
"We want to go on, secure and unafraid, holding fast to the American inheritance and confident of the supreme American fulfillment."
*Warren Gamaliel Harding (1865-1923) was born in Blooming Grove, Ohio & served as a member of the Ohio senate 1900-1904, Lt. Gov of Ohio 1904-1906, U.S. Senate 1915-1921 & 29th POTUS 1921-1923. WGH received the highest % of the popular vote than any presidential candidate before him.
**Mechanics' Hall (1881-1959) located at Huntington Ave & W. Newton St. in Boston, MA was a civic auditorium which hosted conventions.
***Normalcy is a real word, interchangeable with normality, it means the condition of being normal, usual, typical or expected.
SOURCES
"Return to Normalcy, Warren G. Harding, May 14, 1920," www.teachingamericanhistory.org/
"Warren G. Harding and the 'Return to Normalcy (1920)," www.americanyawp.com/
Warren G. Harding
Photo by Harris & Ewing (1920)
Library of Congress Image
Ticket to Home Market Club Dinner
February 16, 1899
